puma creepers

[Zara Cook]

ÿþThe puma is an iconic predator puma creepers that ranges throughout the Americas, occupying diverse habitats. Previous phylogeographic analyses have revealed that it exhibits moderate levels of genetic structure across its range, with few of the classically recognized subspecies being supported as distinct demographic units. Moreover, most of the species' molecular diversity was found to be in South America. To further investigate the phylogeographic structure and demographic history of pumas we analyzed mtDNA sequences from 186 individuals sampled throughout their range.

Pumas have remarkable dispersal capabilities ( Maehr et al. , 2002 ; Beier et al. , 2003 ) and successfully occupy a diverse array of habitats, illustrating their potential to adapt to the breadth of environmental conditions occurring across puma rihanna the continent, from tropical forests and marshes to dry scrubland and cold Andean or Patagonian biomes ( Redford and Eisenberg, 1992 ; Nowak, 1999 ). Pumas are solitary and territorial, with large home ranges.

Females tend to occupy smaller puma fenty areas and disperse shorter distances, thus being more philopatric than males ( Logan and Sweanor, 2001 ; Maehr et al. , 2002 ). Overall, the species' ecological flexibility and dispersal capabilities have the potential to induce broad genetic connectivity across large geographic areas, unless historical barriers have limited gene flow among populations.Fossil evidence indicates that pumas were already present in North America 0.4 million years ago (MYA) ( Kurtén and Anderson, 1980 ).

However, since the credibility interval puma slides of this estimate slightly overlaps the timing of the GABI, this issue is still not fully settled. Interestingly, Barnett et al. (2005) provided molecular evidence indicating that the extinct North American felid Miracinonyx trumani is the puma's closest relative, with a divergence time estimated at 3.19 MYA. This finding would support the hypothesis of a North American origin for the puma, with subsequent colonization of South America by this species.

Culver et al. , 2000 ; Castilho et al. , 2011 ; Miotto et al. , 2011 , 2012 ). Therefore, as a whole we collected novel data from a total of 186 individuals. These samples were originated from a diverse array of geographic regions throughout most of the puma range, with greater emphasis on South America (see Table S1 ). Two samples of Puma puma fenty slides yagouaroundi were also included to be used as outgroups in some analyses.To select a marker that would provide suitable information levels.

The availability of ND5 sequences for the extinct felid Miracinonyx trumani ( Barnett et al. , 2005 ) was an additional asset of this segment, allowing the inclusion of this fossil taxon in some analyses.Sequence electropherograms were visually inspected and edited using Chromas Lite 2.01 or FinchTV 1.4.0. Sequences were aligned with the CLUSTALW algorithm ( Higgings et al. , 1996 ) implemented in MEGA 4 ( Tamura et al. , 2007 ), followed by manual verification and editing.